Actually it’s a little under a week! The community challenge for The Refashioners 2017 closes for entries at midnight GMT/UK time on Tuesday 31st October. (Just check out that prize!!) It really isn’t too late to get your entry in. Just keep it simple! Often those are the best kind of refashions. Seriously!

If you’ve got your suit unpicked but struggling for direction and inspiration check out all the blogger makes from this years series, our pinterest board, instagram and facebook.

Here’s a few of the community challenge entries so far to inspire and delight!! (Click the link below the image for more details).

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

Source.

So….If you fancy getting your entry in, chop chop!! There are loads of other intriguing WIPS appearing in my feed that I am itching to see final photos of!! Like seriously exciting ones. You are really refashioning up a storm out there guys!! So exciting! There is still time….

• Check out our pinterest board for inspiration
• Check out the amazing prize package (yes you could win all that!)
• Go grab a suit and dive in!

….If you haven’t familiarised yourself with what the actual challenge is yet, essentially we want you to refashion an old, unworn or unloved suit! Simple as that! What counts as a suit you say? Definition here! (See also previous comments!)

Man’s suit. Ladies suit. Suit jacket on it’s own. Doesn’t matter.  Interpret how you see fit. If you’re breathing new life into something “suity” that would otherwise go unworn or be thrown away, THAT’S what counts.

BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you’ll need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2017  and #suitsyou
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 2 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 31st October 2017 Midnight GMT.

Good luck!!! Get refashioning.

Oh and by the way…The Refashioners is going on the road this November!! If you fancy attending our very first “in person” workshop in London on 4th November….full deets here!!

 

 

I’m usually alot quicker in getting this post up. (Shattered!Ugh!) And aside from the usual “wowee! didn’t we do well!” kinda vibe (I mean…just look at that collage of awesomeness!)….there’s some important bits and bobs of info I need to share with you.

It’s been 10 days since we concluded the blogger element of The Refashioners 2017.  BUT, there is still the not so small matter of the community challenge element which is still running!! That is running until midnight GMT 31st October 2017.  And if you enter…you could be in with a change of winning an awesome prize package worth over £1500. Not least the Pfaff Passport 3.0…

 

Designed to give you all the functionality you need and the portability to take it with you wherever you go! The rest of the prize package is equally awesome. (Link at the end of this post) Go check it out!

 

 

Thanks to the lovely peops at Oxfam we also have an exclusive online discount code for you.  Apparently they really love what we’re doing and want to support and encourage as many people as possible to refashion their charity shop finds! Whoop! So if you’re not able to find a suit to refashion in your local charity shop, then hop over to check them out.  But hurry. Expires 15th October. So do it now!

And while we’re talking about getting hold of a suit, let me clarify. (And please do spread the word about this part as I think it’s put some people off). Since it’s become apparent that matching suits are not as universally easy to track down as the plentiful supply in my own area led me to believe….I think it’s only fair to loosen the parameters a little to include refashions of jackets on their own, if that’s all you can  find. I’d rather have you join in than be a fun sponge and suck the joy out of the whole thing with overly inflexible rules. So go forth and find your jacket/suit. It matters not as long as you turn it into something you love and will use!

Before we get onto the “how to enter” malarkey which (to be fair) you will have got the gist of by now if you’ve been following the series, I realised the other day that I haven’t really given proper mention to the  first ever Refashioners workshop!

There are limited tickets left but it would be awesome to see you there! (And for a few glasses of prosecco afterwards!)

Hosted by myself and the wonderful Elisalex de Castro Peake of By Hand London. It’s a 4 hour workshop is focussed around last year’s #jeanius theme of denim. So if you fancy getting some in person inspiration and guidance, then come along with your old, unwanted and unloved jeans and let Elisalex  and I help you lavish some love on them and turn them into something fabulous again!

We have a whole bunch of brand new Pfaff Quilt Ambition 2.0 machines for you to play with too. I have been in love with this machine ever since I bought one last year . I am a pfaffophile.  So you can imagine how excited I was when Pfaff agreed to come on board and support  The Refashioners. IMHO….this machine rocks!

 

So….If you fancy getting your refashion on, but are in two minds about whether to enter this year’s community challenge;

• Check out our pinterest board for inspiration
• Check out the amazing prize package (yes you could win all that!)
• Go grab a suit and dive in!

….If you haven’t familiarised yourself with what the actual challenge is yet, essentially we want you to refashion an old, unworn or unloved suit! Simple as that! What counts as a suit you say? Definition here! (See also previous comments!)

Man’s suit. Ladies suit. Suit jacket on it’s own. Doesn’t matter.  Interpret how you see fit. If you’re breathing new life into something “suity” that would otherwise go unworn or be thrown away, THAT’S what counts.

BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you’ll need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2017  and #suitsyou
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 2 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 31st October 2017 Midnight GMT.

Good luck!!! Get refashioning.

Oh and by the way…The Refashioners is going on the road this November!! If you fancy attending our very first “in person” workshop in London on 4th November….full deets here!!

 

Ok then! Grab a seat and a coffee. We’re in for the long haul here! I have 2 completed refashions for you and 2 WIPS. Probably a shed load of excuses but most importantly lots of tips, tricks and detail on the challenges I encountered and my methods to overcome them.  Lets start with what I got finished!

In a slight departure from my usual casual style I decided fairly early on (despite some tangents in between) to go formal (ish) and that I really wanted to honour the tailoring origins of my base garment. In my youth I used to love men’s vintage waistcoats teamed with floral wide leg trousers and DMs. Yep. Total style icon. I know. (It was the 90s what can I say.) In any case I saw this as an opportunity to see if I could resurrect  that look and, well, if I could still pull it off!

I’m a big fan of “mannish” dressing. So waistcoat it was; and along with some (not insignificant) modifications to the trousers, I had my 2 piece from a two piece…I opted to add a sliiiiiightly unconventional element to it in the form of this back panel. Cut from a techy sportswear fabric from Stoff & Stil.  The fabric itself and the abstracty camo  pattern provides a great foil/contrast to the formality of the pure wool pinstripe AND provides me with a little “give” in the back as it has a degree of stretch to it.

I tried styling this several ways. I lean more naturally to this slightly more casual way of wearing it and it’s more akin (in fact spookily similar) to how I used to wear my waistcoats back in the day…

It’s been a long time since I’ve worn anything close to as form fitting as this so I am well and truly out of my comfort zone in that sense. But in other ways it’s like “Ah! hello old friend!” I really did used to live in these things!

But enough reminiscing! Let’s talk about how this went down!

 

The Suit

I picked my suit up at a local charity shop. I live rurally and there are some great bargains to be had here. So that’s tip number one for you. If you live in a big town or city…head out to the sticks. The more rural you go….the cheaper the charity shops get. And failing that check out the link to the Oxfam online discount in the sidebar 😉

This one cost me £7.50. Originally £14.99 but hadn’t sold after several weeks and so was put on the sale rail. I know alot of you have guilt about cutting up a perfectly good suit. I’ll go on the record and say I do and I don’t.  Ha! Nothing like a bit of vagueness to clear things up, lol! Let me explain…At the end of the day, by virtue of the very fact that this ended up in a charity shop, this is unwanted clothing. Someone gave it away. They didn’t want it.  In this case it then sat unsold in said charity shop for several weeks. So it seems nobody else wanted it either. Doesn’t get more unwanted and unloved than that. That’s the reason I don’t feel guilty.

What makes me feel a little guilty is the time somebody spent making this suit and, well, I’m about to undo alot of that. It never ceases to amaze me what doesn’t get snapped up in a charity shop. It’s a beautifully made suit made from 100%  pure Italian wool. But at the end of the day, no-one wanted it. So to my mind, it was due some love and attention. But yes….hard to cut into something like this!

And yep. The fly is undone in this pic as someone pointed out to me on Instagram! But I am wearing jeans underneath. So it’s ok. Not embarrassing at all. Ahem.

Now onto the deets.

The Waistcoat

Cue gratuitous close up of my boobage. You’re welcome. But I wanted to show you the seaming and shape on this. I have never sewn a waistcoat before. I’ve only ever lined one garment properly. AND this is my first experience sewing princess seams. And I’m like….where have you BEEN all my life. They really are great for fitting on a larger bust in a way that standard darts never really have been for me…

This is the pattern in question. (New Look 6814) Yep for this element I opted for the “harvest some fabric and use a pattern” approach to refashioning. But don’t worry if you’re a purist. I adopt other approaches further on 😉 And if you’re not a purist, yes harvesting fabric is a perfectly legitimate approach to transforming a garment imho. There are many routes to the same destination 🙂

For the jacket I went into total deconstruction mode.  Disseminating the whole thing into it’s component parts and cutting around welt pockets and existing darts where I couldn’t unpick. I never felt at any stage a scarcity of fabric during this make. If anything I felt there were so many options it was hard to decide which route to go down because there were so many I wanted to try.  Just looking at the way some of those pieces are laying on the floor in that picture I can see options that make me want to rewind and explore those instead!

But this is the route I took for the waistcoat so let’s talk about that. The front & side back sections are cut entirely from the sleeves. The side front section from the lower half of the back of the jacket (incidentally the largest pieces of easily usable pieces you can harvest from a jacket).

To ensure everything was on grain (hard to do on some occasions as you have no selvedge to guide you obvs!) I made use of the pinstripe!. I knew the suit would have been cut on grain and with the pinstripe. So I used that as my guide, drew a vertical line down each pattern piece and lined it up with the pinstripe…

Each matching sleeve piece is layered ontop of it’s counterpart, RS together to ensure that both sides of my pattern pieces were cut with equal accuracy. You’ve got accuracy inherent in a well made suit. So make use of it and take it as your guide would be my tip…

Cutting it fine in this instance! So if you encounter this, just make sure your edges are fully lined up. If the fabric layer underneath is even a smidge out you end up with a badly cut pattern piece and there are no second go’s with a refashion!

The pattern called for my sections to be interfaced.  But where I ended up with some original pieces of interfacing still in place, I trimmed back my own interfacing as I didn’t want to double up and over structure my garment…

 

When it came to cutting the lining I really wanted to retain some of the original details…

So I pieced together the pieces I wanted to use with other scraps until they were the right size/shape to fit the pattern pieces …

Marked on my pattern pieces where I wanted the inside pockets to sit…

And then used that as a guide to cut my pieces…

The pattern calls for the same fabric as the outer shell to be used as a facing for the front section. The lining on it’s own would not be sturdy enough to perform this function and create a nice crisp and clean edge around the waistcoat front and bottom edges. So I traced, cut and applied a wide band of interfacing all around the outer edge to remedy that..

The rest of the construction was (more or less) as per pattern instructions. Apart from I only part “lined” that back piece (in the same stretchy fabric). Essentially just the section where the lining was meant to act as a facing to finish the back neckline and armholes. If I’d lined the back I would have negated the stretch characteristics of the back section. I thought about binding the bottom edge of the back facing for a “posher” finish but opted not to as I was concerned it would show through as a line across the back of the waistcoat when wearing. So I left it raw but it’s a non fraying fabric so we’re good!

I did however “go posh” for the edge lining at side back seams. This would have been attached to the lining I was meant to put in the back. But my decision not to line the back of the waistcoat left me with the dilemma of how to finish and attach that section of lining. As you can see, it’s bias bound and then hand pick stitched to the seam allowances at the back seams so everything is secure and neatly finished. A little nod to the tailor or the original suit if you like.

The Trousers

Now you might have thought that the trousers would be relatively straightforward, quick and painless to alter. But they gave me WAY more problems than they should have done. Largely down to my own “duh” stupidity. I felt hugely off my game going into this challenge. First thing I’ve sewn in weeks as we’ve just moved house. So I went into this “cold” following a lengthy sewing break. But actually, it’s pretty straightforward…

The reason it became a bit more complex is the sheer amount of structure in a pair on man’s trousers. Awesome yes. Impressive? Absolutely! But just not comfy for me. I felt like I was wearing armoured trousers!

So all that structure had to go…..

Waistband was unpicked in one section. Zip, fly, and fly shields included…

The front legs on these were lined and the pocket bags were made of a medium weight cotton with added wool facings. Too bulky for my liking so that all got removed too..

 

I made new pocket bags from the same fabric I used for the back of the waistcoat. Using the existing pockets as templates and mimicking their construction. Cue some pocket porn pics because a) you get a better look at that contrast fabric and b) I’m quite proud of the finish, lol!

 

I assembled the trousers adjusting for fit across the side seams and CB and CF seams until I was happy with the fit. (I actually did very little reshaping of the crotch seams as was overall happy with the fit of them weirdly enough. ) Then I inserted an invisible zip in the CB seam. (My first invisible zip and I didn’t realise I should have attached the waistband first! Which caused me a few problems but there was no way I was unpicking that invisible zip. They are NOT fun to sew. No Likey!)

On a man’s trousers there is a generous SA to the CB seam. This comes in handy when you’ve lopped off a big chunk of the length by cutting away the button tabs. Just saying. You can also see there is ALOT of structure in there. Canvass, interfacing, chain stitching, piping. Again….impressive but way more bulk than I want to be wrapping around my waist!

Belt loops be gone! (Bar tacks are by far the piggiest thing to unpick in my opinion).

Waistband pared right back. Canvas and layered facing removed…

It was JUST long enough to fit after all that. But I ended up cutting a new facing from some stash fabric., and had to ease like a demon.  But eventually, I won.

Shape wise I simply tapered from hip to ankle as it’s a shape I really love and feel comfortable in. These trousers have seen quite a bit of wear already. The process involved in these is what I would call the “adjust to fit” approach to refashioning. Not a complete transformation. But changes to suit the new wearer if that makes sense?

The WIPS

So at the beginning of the post I alluded to another two elements that I haven’t finished yet. But I thought I’d share them with you anyway, at the stage they are at. In my head I write my blog posts as I sew. And the intro for this was gonna be either “a tale of two waistcoats” (gotta love a classic literary reference) OR “waistcoats two ways” a la Masterchef. (Are you watching? I’m willing Ulrika to win!)

All of that meaning…yes…I had two waistcoats on the go. The second, though, takes a slightly different route. This one has been more of a draping excercise and a piece that is evolving with no clear plan. Just seeing where the pieces of the jacket take me. I’m actually really excited about where this is heading and a little gutted I didn’t get it finished in time for this post…

Essentially, the jacket fronts are probably the most challenging to reuse because of all the detail and structure. So I really wanted to focus a project specifically on those. Here they are. The details have been unpicked and removed but the structure is still there in the form of interfacing welded on!

One of the reasons this one is taking a bit longer is that draping on yourself is a bit tricky. (The mannequin is nowhere near my shape and size). So I’ve been pinning it onto myself, through my clothes and onto my bra to get the positioning right. Here you can see I’ve overlapped the original dart legs by a much larger margin until it fits and follows my bust shape…

That’s been topstitched in place and it makes for some interesting lines with the stripes I think!

That was my jumping off point, and from there I’ve been gradually adding sections of offcuts from the jacket to build up a garment shell, which I will then sew together properly and line with the remainder of the lining…

Not sure what this will end up as. But It’s a creative process I’m really enjoying and will keep you posted. (I really need to pad that mannequin out to my shape. Would make it so much quicker!)

The other thing I’ve been playing with is the canvas I removed from the jacket fronts…

I’ve pieced some of it together using a zig zag/butt join method until I have one larger piece to work with. It struck me that with such an obvious and clear weave (like a slightly finer Ada) it would be a good candidate for some hand embroidery. So I’ve been experimenting, using the weave as a guide for stitch counting…

Right from the get go this make, and this post, has been like pulling teeth for me. But despite that a really enjoyable challenge. The good news is, that there is plenty of fabric to work with. If you work WITH it I think. But this one is very very time consuming. (Oh the unpicking!! Don’t start me on that!) So if you’re going to take part, get your skates on and get started.

So that’s it! That’s me done and the blogger element of this challenge done too! From now on….it’s over to you! You have until 31st October to enter . Get cracking!

If you fancy getting your refashion on, but are in two minds about whether to enter this year’s community challenge;

• Check out our pinterest board for inspiration
• Check out the amazing prize package (yes you could win all that!)
• Go grab a suit and dive in!

….If you haven’t familiarised yourself with what the actual challenge is yet, essentially we want you to refashion an old, unworn or unloved suit! Simple as that! What counts as a suit you say? Definition here!

Man’s suit. Ladies suit. Doesn’t matter.  Interpret how you see fit. If you’re breathing new life into a suit that would otherwise go unworn or be thrown away, THAT’S what counts.

BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you’ll need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2017  and #suitsyou
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 2 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 31st October 2017 Midnight GMT.

Good luck!!! Get refashioning.

Oh and by the way…The Refashioners is going on the road this November!! If you fancy attending our very first “in person” workshop in London on 4th November….full deets here!!

 

When Laura from Named Clothing agreed to be part of this year’s line up I was so chuffed. I love their aesthetic and was excited to see what their take on this challenge would be. When I saw this pop into my inbox I knew I’d played a blinder asking Laura to take part!The dress is based on the Agate from their stunning new FW 17 Earth Science collection of patterns…

The lines of the pattern lend themselves really well to refashioning anyway (being long and narrow) but Laura had even more of a play with them resulting in some striking stripe play…

Really loving diagonal seams front and back and the zip detail at the side seam. I love that you can almost see the original trouser leg in that front panel. But if you didn’t know this was a refashion….could you tell?

Nailed that then Laura!

For more pics and details  head over to Named Clothing’s blog ! 

Only me to go tomorrow, then we’re done and it’s over to you!!

If you fancy getting your refashion on, but are in two minds about whether to enter this year’s community challenge;

• Check out our pinterest board for inspiration
• Check out the amazing prize package (yes you could win all that!)
• Go grab a suit and dive in!

….If you haven’t familiarised yourself with what the actual challenge is yet, essentially we want you to refashion an old, unworn or unloved suit! Simple as that! What counts as a suit you say? Definition here!

Man’s suit. Ladies suit. Doesn’t matter.  Interpret how you see fit. If you’re breathing new life into a suit that would otherwise go unworn or be thrown away, THAT’S what counts.

BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you’ll need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2017  and #suitsyou
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 2 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 31st October 2017 Midnight GMT.

Good luck!!! Get refashioning.

Oh and by the way…The Refashioners is going on the road this November!! If you fancy attending our very first “in person” workshop in London on 4th November….full deets here!!

 

Oh my oh my! I like a pocket  it’s fair to say.  I also like ALL the greys. So Wendy’s take on this challenge has me getting all unnecessary and plotting a blatant rip off of this idea!

With four pockets and  blocking both in texture and “colour” (shades of grey)…I am seriously in love with this coat…

This is one of those makes that retains the integrity of the original garment(s) in a subtly quirky way. A kind of understated uniqueness..

But as you’ve probably realised by now, the understated subtlety of this coat is contrasted by the amount of work that has gone into it. And as always from Wendy, you can expect the insides of this to be as beautiful as the outside 😉

For more pics, an interesting read, a giveaway (yesss!) and lots of detail  hop over to Wendy’s blog ! 

Two more days of the blogger element to go and then it’s over to you guys!! Eeep! So excited to see what you come up with. Been seeing some tantalising sneak peaks from you on social media already as well as the first completed entries coming through!

So….are you in??

If you fancy getting your refashion on, but are in two minds about whether to enter this year’s community challenge;

• Check out our pinterest board for inspiration
• Check out the amazing prize package (yes you could win all that!)
• Go grab a suit and dive in!

….If you haven’t familiarised yourself with what the actual challenge is yet, essentially we want you to refashion an old, unworn or unloved suit! Simple as that! What counts as a suit you say? Definition here!

Man’s suit. Ladies suit. Doesn’t matter.  Interpret how you see fit. If you’re breathing new life into a suit that would otherwise go unworn or be thrown away, THAT’S what counts.

BUT, if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of these amazing prize packages you’ll need to SHARE that refashion with us in one of the following ways:

• On Instagram: Share a pic using the hashtags #therefashioners2017  and #suitsyou
• On Facebook: There is a community board here where you can post your makes (You will need to request an invite to join)

Only entries shared via the above 2 methods will be entered into the competition. Closing date for entries is 31st October 2017 Midnight GMT.

Good luck!!! Get refashioning.

Oh and by the way…The Refashioners is going on the road this November!! If you fancy attending our very first “in person” workshop in London on 4th November….full deets here!!